Foreign Digest, Caucasus Region: Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia

Nagorno-Karabakh: There have recently been renewed tensions over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan that is controlled by ethnic Armenians, who share close ties with nearby Armenia. The Christian Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and their ally, Armenia, have been fighting off and on with Muslim Azerbaijan since the two former Soviet Republics became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. A land corridor with Armenia was cut off by the Azeris in fighting three years ago, but now Azerbaijan has even been cutting off supplies from Armenia to the Armenian enclave. The peace deal reached at the time, in which Armenia gave up much of the territory beyond Nagorno-Karabakh it had won in previous fighting, was guaranteed by Russian troops, who have not defended the ethnic Armenians from the Azeris’ supply cutoff. Georgia: The United Staes and five allies on the United Nations Security Council demanded in a joint statement last week that the Russian Federation return control of Georgian territory on the 15th anniversary of its seizure of two breakaway territories of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in 2008. The Russians established independent puppet states that are hardly recognized internationally, and have kept Russian troops there ever since. The U.S. and its allies note how the Russian invasion of the Caucasus State to its south presaged its aggression against the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine in 2014, in violation of both States’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, which Russia recognized, and as required by the U.N. Charter. The Americans and their allies also note how the Russians have erected barbed wire and other obstacles, unlawfully abducted Georgians, discriminated against ethnic Georgians and target Georgian cultural heritage for damage. The Russians, led by former Soviet intelligence officer, Vladimir Putin, a tyrant who dreams of restoring the Soviet Union, have encroached on Georgian territory by pushing the border forward repeatedly in various locations, adding the territory to their puppet states. The U.S. and its allies call for a peaceful resolution between Russia and Georgia.